


Arcadia Meta

by YoungestThunderbird



Series: Arcadia [11]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YoungestThunderbird/pseuds/YoungestThunderbird
Summary: I received a favorable response to my worldbuilding notes, so I’m posting them.
Series: Arcadia [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939405
Comments: 14
Kudos: 130





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m really flattered, guys. If you see something you want to ask or talk about, comment, those make my day.

On the Republic:

The reason I wrote the Republic as corrupt comes from a lot of little things through the series and Clone Wars.

Firstly, and majorly, they do nothing against slavery in the outer rim, even though Tatooine is heavily implied to be at least a territory or protectorate of the Republic. They also allow known crime cartels to operate in the open, notably the Hutts.

Secondly, I think the Republic actually had a flawed balance of power, at least by the time of Phantom Menace. The Senate seems to fill legislative, executive, and judicial powers at the same time. Most nations separate legislative and judicial, at the very least, because it puts too much power in the hands of one person.

Palaptine also canonically gathered many ‘emergency powers’ during the war, and refused to step down after his term was up. We don’t really know how much power the Senate was supposed to have. Most planets have functioning planetary governments, with royalty in some. I would wonder if the Senate was originally supposed to function more like the United Nations, but exceeded its mandate at the years went by.

Furthermore, as mentioned in Exodus Flight, I don’t believe all senators are appointed in a democratic election. The Naboo are, but the Naboo are a people who take civic responsibility to new heights. The government is termed a Republic, which by definition means that representatives are appointed to vote on issues, but there is no guarantee that the representatives are appointed by democratic election.

Or a free one. I kind of doubt that Orn Free Ta, for example, was elected fairly.

There also seems to be Senators from corporate entities. Lott Dod is the Senator for the Trade Federation, not Nemoida. This is a really excellent case of government bias. There is a reason Ford, Walmart, and Enron don’t have seats in Congress.

Speaking of the Trade Federation Senator, I really doubt he was elected. Can you see the Federation passing out ballots? I think he was appointed, and might possibly be the relative of someone high up. Great power and great nepotism often go hand in hand.

There’s also probably a bureaucracy problem. Any government with that much power is probably also heavily bureaucratic, simply due to the need to enforce the little laws.

And the Senate has a bad habit of forming committees that do nothing.

That’s not to say that the Senate is entirely evil, or that it’s irredeemable. Bail Organa, Riyo Chuchi, Mon Mothma, and others are working to reform it. The reformation efforts have just not been relevant to the series so far, so I haven’t included it.

On the Jedi Order:

This one was harder to deal with, as the real world has no equivalent of their relationship with a governmental body that I know of. I’m going with the assumption that they volunteered their services to the Senate in the distant past, to be notified of disaster relief and diplomatic mediation missions that they might help with.

They probably just made the mistake of accepting funding from the Senate, and thus letting the Senate have power over them. That power grew over the centuries.

I really do believe that the Jedi Order is full of mostly good people trying their best. However, no one is perfect, even Jedi Masters, and some interpretations of the Code can cause more trouble than others.

On not freeing the slaves: I think that was an issue of manpower and Senate mandate. Most Jedi, by the time of PM, see themselves as duly appointed officers of the law working within the bounds of the Senate, and the Senate doesn’t really care about freeing slaves.

I can’t believe that Jinn wasn’t brought up on charges for child trafficking when he bought Anakin. Anakin might have been explicable as a child needing training in the Force, though. And in a galaxy that has proof that people like Anakin can do a lot of damage if left unsupervised and untrained, there might be laws regarding bringing Force Sensitive kids to the Temple, to protect Searcher Jedi.

I don’t think kids are kidnapped to join the order. I do think there might be incentives for parents to give up their kids, tax breaks and such.

However, if the Order had bought Shmi, who was a Force Sensitive woman shown to be in control of her powers (if she was Force Sensitive at all), they would have been complicit in human trafficking. With the best of intentions, of course, but laws do not consider intentions. The Council probably couldn’t afford the media storm and lawsuit that would likely create.

This doesn’t make it right, to leave Shmi in slavery. It just makes it the path of least resistance, and the Jedi are kind of shown to be taking the path of least resistance several times in the prequels.

On the attachment policy: I’m one of the ones that believe attachment does not equal love, but rather selfishness and clinging. Remember that old saying, if you love someone, let them go? Attachment is not letting go.

Real love can be a conduit for the light. Attachment, with the selfishness and fear of loneliness that goes with it, can be a conduit for the dark.

However, I am a firm believer that love is something that needs to be taught, at least for some people. Kids need to learn boundaries, that they cannot force others to love them back. Stuff like that.

The Jedi Order’s crèche, the place where they would learn all that, is probably a good place to show that, but it also probably never explicitly says anything. For someone who can infer behaviors from others, like Obi-wan, this works well. For Anakin, not so much.

On the crèche: I do think Jedi kids are hugged. I’m assuming that most sentient psychology works similar to human, and human kids need to be hugged. Neglected kids can get emotional imbalance, mental illness, and failure to thrive if not given enough attention when little. However, what happens to the kids after they reach initiate rank changes over time.

When Obi-wan was an initiate, he was probably gently discouraged from showing affection in public. This was less for attachment reasons, and more for diplomatic training. In some places, showing public affection is quite inappropriate, so it’s a necessary skill to wait until you are in private to express your feelings.

When Obi-wan was made an apprentice, Qui-gon was probably expected to be affectionate to him and support him in private, fill a sort of parental role. This did not happen as much as was necessary for Obi-wan, unfortunately, between Xanatos, Melida-daan, and all the other disasters that were Obi-wan’s childhood. Because of this, Obi-wan is still a little uncomfortable with physical affection, but he’s getting better.

When Anakin was apprenticed, affection in public was heavily discouraged, and affection in private was looked down upon by some of the more inflexible masters. Most Jedi did express emotion and affection in private, but Obi-wan and Anakin never saw that, and due to his own apprenticeship with Qui-gon, Obi-wan never knew that physical affection was within the bounds of the Code until much later.

Anakin’s a pretty touchy guy, though, and Obi-wan is pretty determined to give his apprentice everything he needs to succeed, so they probably ignored that rule in private as time went on. However, he was always wary in public. Anakin picked up on that. Also, Anakin doesn’t learn from example as well. He needs to be told, point-blank, anything he needs to know.

In canon, that might have been it, Anakin might have thought his Master didn’t really love him because he was wary of showing it sometimes and he never said it. Anakin also probably didn’t meet his master’s crèchemates for a couple years, and he never quite understood the difference between love and attachment.

In this universe, Obi-wan worked and stressed himself into sickness shortly after he got Anakin, and had to ask his friends to take care of Anakin for a while (See Crossing the River). Luminara, a more traditional and reserved but also more emotionally articulate Jedi, was able to explain some things that Obi-wan couldn’t, and so could Bant, and so could Garen, and Quinlan, And Reeft. Basically, it takes a village to raise an Anakin.

The older Jedi also explained some of Obi-wan’s childhood to Anakin, and helped him understand why his Master acted the way he did. Anakin was a slave, he’s familiar with what a traumatic childhood can do.

Additionally, Anakin was comfortable with Quinlan especially enough to ask him questions that he never asked Obiwan in the original timeline, so Quinlan was able to correct some misconceptions of the Jedi Code early on.

Palpatine wonders who is correcting Anakin. The kid is becoming more and more knowledgeable and hard to twist.

By the time Ahsoka is apprenticed, attachment is less of a worry. Everyone’s attention is taken up by the war, and if a couple hugs from your Master help you deal with the things you see on the battlefield, no one cares.

By the time Zatt is apprenticed, the Code has been revised to separate the ideas of attachment and love more explicitly, and families have become permissible for Jedi to have so long as their family does not get in the way of their duty.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to break down character analyses to family groups. This is Kenobi-Skywalker.

Kenboi-Skywalker gang

Obi-wan Kenobi

Obi-wan is kind of a hard guy to pin down. There were some lines in the RpTS novelization about how he was a contradiction, a warrior and a diplomat, a pilot who hates flying, a mediator who craves solitude. What I’ve settled on, for his character, is a very reserved and introverted man who is bound and determined to be whatever he needs to be for the Order, for the Republic, and for those he loves.

The first example of this would probably be Melida-Daan; he became a soldier because the Young needed him to.

He’s kind of a chameleon. This can explain a lot of his contradictions.

His Master needed him to be a good Master to Anakin, so he became one. Anakin needed him to be a good big brother/father, so he did his best to become one. He had a hard time finding what a good Master was, as his examples were lacking, but he eventually figured it out.

Good Masters love their Padawans, and good big brothers love their little brothers, so he began to love Anakin fairly quickly. Obi-wan is an interesting fellow in that he can love someone as part of his duty, and have it be no less deep or genuine as someone he loves by choice.

Where most of Obi-wan’s and Anakin’s struggles begin is communication. Obi-wan is someone who, both due to his reservedness and the way he was raised, doesn’t naturally say ‘I love you.’ Anakin, on the other hand, is a very unsubtle person and cannot understand implications or subtext, and really only gets what he is told point blank. For this reason, Anakin and Obiwan have occasional communication issues to this day.

Anakin and Obiwan, though they are very close, have a key difference; Anakin is a passionate person, while Obi-wan is a logical one. Obiwan feels deeply, but does not let his emotions influence his actions; Anakin is often driven by his emotions. They work to balance each other out, but do clash occasionally over this issue.

Due to Obiwan’s ability to be whatever he needs to, he gained skills quickly in the Temple. He’s very skilled in lightsaber combat, piloting, mediation, investigation, and tactics. He’s the best all-around Jedi the Order has; there are individuals whose skills exceed his in one field (Quinlan is better at investigating, for example, and Anakin is a better pilot), but no one is better than he is at all of them.

Obiwan’s also quite good at reading people, seeing their micro expressions and reading to the heart of their desires and motivations. However, despite his skill at reading emotion, he can sometimes still struggle with what kind of emotion is ordinary and expected and what is concerning. He also desires to be genuine in his actions with his family, and can be hesitant to address emotions in others, fearing that he’ll fall back into his Negotiator persona to deal with them. He’s working on that, with the help of his family, especially Cody.

Anakin Skywalker

Anakin is, in a word, passionate. He and Obi-wan balance each other out a bit; Obi-wan provides logic, while Anakin provides emotion. He has to be careful not to be ruled by it. Anakin will always have to be mindful of where his emotions can lead, and that they don’t always steer him right. However, he’s up to the task, especially with his family watching his back.

Anakin loves freely and deeply, and is loyal to people, not to institutions. He tries to get around this tendency of his by becoming loyal to the people in the institutions, and it’s working so far.

He does think before he speaks, but he doesn’t always think things through all the way. This can lead to explosions, both physical and metaphorical.

He’s a very open person, but not quite outgoing. It’s dangerous to be outgoing as a slave, and the Temple seemed very forbidding to him when he was young, so he never quite got the hang of being the first to talk and interact with others. However, when with friends, or when talking about a subject he’s passionate about, he will banter and talk all day if he can.

He’s an excellent pilot and mechanic, and also a fearsome warrior with his lightsaber, though he leaves strategy to others. Do not put him anywhere near diplomacy if you don’t want lightsabers to get involved.

Anakin struggles some, with relating to other people. He can’t always catch the things people don’t say out loud. He thought Obi-wan didn’t love him for about three months because of that, when he was young. He also will not be the first one to pick up on a family member’s distress, though he will be the first one to help once he knows there’s trouble.

Has a habit of adopting people without telling them. Obiwan despairs.

He was bratty during his teenage years; his strength in the Force and with lightsabers got to his head, and Obiwan didn’t know how to deflate it. Ahsoka and Rex helped him grow up a lot.

He has what I like to call an Engineer’s Mindset (no offense to any engineers reading this): he can get frustrated if a problem doesn’t have a definable solution. Still thinks in a very black-and-white manner, which is part of why he does not do well with diplomacy. Obi-wan And Padmé are working with him on this, but it’s slow going.

He’s a great character to move the plot forward, especially if everyone else is nervous. He’ll definitely be the one to leap off the ledge, to antagonize the mad king, to steal the cursed statue. This tendency of his is the reason for most of Obi-wan’s grey hairs.

Alpha-17

You know, I didn’t really mean to include Alpha-17 in the Kenobi-Skywalker family at first. His spot in Exodus Flight was just because I was running out of characters to do POVs of, and I didn’t want to double up one character’s POV. I originally planned for him to be kind of a grumpy loner who has a soft spot for the kids he trains.

But then I got to thinking. Very dangerous, I know.

Alpha, for all his grouchiness, is a fundamentally decent man. Many fandom creators have written stories (Soft Wars is a big one. Check it out!) where Alpha-17 trains Cody in some way as a Cadet, and I liked the idea. How would a fundamentally decent man like Alpha deal with being used to abuse children? And thus There Is No Never Land was born.

It occurred to me as I wrote this down that Alpha makes a really good foil for Kenobi. Kenobi is a Master, or parent-analogue, that prefers to be thought of as a brother to Anakin. Alpha is a biological twin brother to Cody, but they both think of him as Cody’s parent.

Alpha dealt with Kamino by becoming what the Kaminoans wanted him to be in public, and by suppressing his emotions heavily even in private. His mannerisms were flat, his face was expressionless, and his voice had no inflection. He will not ask for help, and sometimes still feels guilty for Cody. Cody makes sure to remind him that it wasn’t his fault.

Alpha is still kind of a gruff individual, very direct and sarcastic. He has started letting himself act less stiff, and will inflect his voice, but he rarely makes facial expression.

He’s a pessimist, or at the very least a realist whose reality for years was a nightmare. He’s known to snark and cuss at adults, but he has a soft spot a mile wide for children. Zatt has been known to take advantage of this.

He’s kind of the leader of the Clones of the family, just like Obi-wan is the leader of the Jedi members, due to seniority. However, most of the time he will defer to Cody, due to Cody’s experience as Commander.

He spends most of his time training Cadets, and Zatt. Obiwan is busy, between Council Membership and his responsibilities to his men, so Alpha takes care of Zatt and teaches him the things Alpha thinks he needs to know.

Zatt, as a side note, knows much more about hand-to-hand combat and blasters than most Jedi of his age due to this.

Alpha is still very reserved, though is becoming more and more open with his family, and somewhat with his fellow Alphas. They’ve established a support group. ‘34 bakes cookies.

Cody

Cody’s an interesting character. Most of the times we see him on screen, he’s acting in a professional capacity, which to me means that what we see is not necessarily his whole personality. He’s also a rather flat character, so I can ascribe traits and motivations to him more often than I could Rex, for example.

Cody, to me, is quite emotionally intelligent. Whether it’s an innate trait or a developed one whole growing up with Alpha ‘face like a refrigerator door’ 17, I couldn’t tell you. He can look at someone and get an idea of their emotions. It works most of the time on strangers, but if he knows someone well, he can practically read their mind.

That’s the second thing. He’s intuitive. He looks at someone, sees their emotional response to stimuli, and can make very accurate guesses about their motivations and the reason they feel a certain way.

The best example I can think of for this, as I write it, is in Chapter 1 of Put Our Faces to the sun, when Cody is asking Alpha for a name.

Alpha, at this point in time, is much less open with his emotions than he is during the main series, though more open than during Cody’s childhood. Because of this, Cody has to deduce Alpha’s motivations for actions in the past based on his emotions when talking about them, after he’s figured out Alpha’s emotions with nonverbal cues. As the author, I can tell you that he hits the mark.

Don’t play poker with Cody. You’ll lose.

Cody also has a much more reasonable idea with what is okay and what is concerning, emotionally, than Obi-wan does. Obiwan considers someone wanting to kill him a tiresome but common response to meeting him. Cody considers it a problem.

There is a reason Alpha made sure Cody was assigned to Obiwan. Obi-wan never talks about his feelings. Cody doesn’t need him to.

In addition, due to Cody practicing on Alpha and other Clones, he relies on body language a lot to tell emotion, because the Clones learned early on at most trainers didn’t pay attention to anything but their face most of the time when not at parade rest. Obi-wan relies on facial cues, due to his negotiation background of meeting people face to face and often sitting at a table, which hides a lot of cues. Between the two of them, they could probably dissect a person’s psyche within five minutes of meeting them.

Now there’s a thought. Criminal Minds: Dantooine.

Cody’s emotional acuity is based a little off my mom’s, who mystifies us all by knowing what many other people are feeling just by looking at them.

Rex

Rex is harder for me to pin, because he does have a lot of screen time, but Clone Wars is a kids action-adventure show. It has very good characters, but they’re not as rounded as I would like, with the possible exception of Anakin and Obiwan due to knowledge from outside the work.

Rex is a competent captain, that’s immediately obvious. He only gives his respect to those he feels have earned it, and apparently Anakin has earned it. He’s also closer to Anakin than Cody is to Obiwan, or, as I interpret it, Rex and Anakin see less reason to act professionally distant than Cody and Obiwan.

Rex is reckless, but he always wanted to be in control of himself and his circumstances. Understandable, given Kamino. He doesn’t like to be manhandled.

He and Anakin seem to get along well, both being willing to risk themselves for others, and both being receptive to hair-brained plans.

He makes jokes with his friends on screen, and you can often tell the people he cares about because he smiles at them.

On to my interpretation of him; he’s Anakin’s Commander-equivalent, but hasn’t been promoted because of his CT status. It’s my headcanon that CT cannot become Commanders, because instituting a caste system seems like just the thing Kaminoans would do. There are exceptions, such as if you know Paperwork Wizard Obi-wan Kenobi.

Anakin may or may not be trying to get Rex promoted.

Rex is more open with his emotions, and more secure about his place in Anakin’s family then the other Clones. This is nothing against Obi-wan, Alpha, or Cody, mind; Rex and Anakin are simply more open with their feelings, and communicate more emotionally.

Additionally, Anakin actually let Rex know when he adopted him, and Rex returned the favor. That’s why there’s less angst there; they’re more prone to actually telling each other they love each other.

Rex also gets mad easier, and is more willing to act on his anger, than Cody or Alpha. However, when another person is also mad, it’s easier for him to control himself; he has a deep-seated need to be the reasonable one.

Mostly, I think, because if he is not the reasonable one in the 501st, no one is.

He’s Anakin’s little brother, and Ahsoka’s big brother. He and Anakin have been preparing their shovel talk for when Ahsoka starts dating as soon as the Code was changed. It’s quite impressive, as they work in tandem and manage to threaten the poor recipient with no less than five different painful demises.

Ahsoka knows all about this and thinks it’s hilarious.

Rex is quite protective of Ahsoka, as established by the above, and also Anakin. One of his greatest disappointments is that he didn’t shoot the Chancellor when Fives tried to meet him, before the man had the chance to try and override the Clones with the executive orders.

Ahsoka Tano

She’s the one that I probably have the best characterization of from the show. She’s inquisitive, daring, kind, an overall very sympathetic character. She’s also the one to get the most character development, probably.

However, I have a couple little tweaks to add to her character. They’re not precisely canon, but they’re not non-canon either, if that makes any sense. Some inspired by other fics, and some came straight out of the morass between my ears.

She’s a Togruta, and obviously connected to her people, as she wears the traditional garments and has completed her hunt in a traditional manner. However, she is also connected to the order, and to her mostly human family.

Togruta are obligate carnivores, and probably have some more predatory instincts than humans. Ahsoka has to be careful every time she fights to not go for the kill like her instincts tell her to. This has given her excellent self control.

Ahsoka is a very fierce person, both impassioned in her views of right and wrong and also wild in behavior. She knows how to act in a polite and civilized manner, but when she is with her family, she will relax a bit; growl and snarl, wrestle with Rex and Anakin, and a couple other small mannerisms.

One of her favorite things to do is run down small mammals on the grasslands for a hunt. Togruta can run faster than a human, though they have less stamina. Humans are designed for stamina hunting, not speed hunting. A couple squads of Clone Cadets have begun to follow her on her runs; she runs ahead and catches fuzzy mammals, they catch up eventually, and they prepare and eat the mammal over a campfire. Ahsoka gets to run, and the hungry teenage cadets get more food. It’s a win-win.

Rex is very pleased and is starting to give those squads of cadets extra training in How To Take Care of a Togruta Jedi.

She’s not quite the Ahsoka of season 7, due to not being on her own for a year, but she’s more mature than she was before she left the order.

That reminds me. I need to write that, how Ahsoka left the Order and came back. It’ll probably show up in Turn Our Faces To The Sun.

Zatt Morness

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t watch the episodes with Zatt. I’m just going off Wikipedia and a healthy dose of inventiveness.

Zatt is the result of me writing myself into a corner in Exodus Flight. As I was writing it, I intended for it to be a one-shot, so I tossed a couple of lines in there about how Obi-wan was considering taking another Padawan to signify that Obi-wan is moving on and healing from the war, and relaxing and feeling safe in new beginnings. And then I decided to continue the series with There Is No Never Land, which required a Padawan to be introduced.

I didn’t want to create an OC for such a major role, I prefer to keep my OCs much less major, so I looked at the only known named initiates from the Clone Wars series; the kids Ahsoka escorted to Illum. My first choice for Obiwan would have been Katooni, to be perfectly honest, but I had already apprenticed her to Plo. So I thought about what qualities would Obi-wan like in an apprentice, and came up with kind and engaging, as well as less powerful and stubborn than Anakin. The man is tired from his first apprentice, let him rest. Zatt seemed to fit the bill best.

Zatt’s about ten. He hero-worships most of his family, including his Master. He firmly believes that Padawan hugs can help most hurts, and no one can really say he’s wrong.

He spends most of his time with Obi-wan, Cody, and Alpha, though he will hang out with Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex. Everyone tries to keep him away from Quinlan Vos.

I actually like Vos, I swear! But he’s kind of a horrible combination of the fun uncle and a super spy. He’s not someone you want to leave kids alone with, for fear of them learning new and interesting things while you were gone.

Zatt is a very playful individual, and likes hugs very much. He’s mechanically inclined, and likes to make gadgets and gizmos of varying usefulness, something he shares with Anakin. He is somewhat emotionally mature, and is familiar with the ideas of past hurt shaping current actions.

Zatt’s a good character to ask those awkward questions that Anakin won’t due to social convention. Zatt’s not as easily embarrassed as the rest of his family, so he will talk about things that they wouldn’t otherwise.

In addition, he’s one of my best excuses for exposition. He doesn’t know anything about anyone’s past, so everything has to be explained to him, providing a helpful recap for my readers.

Padmé Amidala

Padmé is a hard character for me to write. She’s still around, don’t worry; she’s just busy with her job as legal consultant for the Jedi Order. She has an office next to Master Nu in the library and is starting to make friends with Boba during his twice-weekly library trips.

She’s like Anakin, in that she is intensely passionate. That’s part of why they work so well together, and also why she married him after being on the same planet as him for less than a month.

However, unlike Anakin, she has equally intense self-control. A queen who flies of the handle at the slightest provocation is no good for her people.

She also functions as Anakin’s self-control sometimes, but he’s getting better.

I may do something with her in the future, but for now, she’s happily working part-time in the Archives with the kids in the crèche, and goes home every night with them to her husband.

The twins

Are babies. They don’t really have much in the way of personality yet. Leia’s loud, and likes to be talked to. Luke’s quiet, and likes to be held. That’s all I’ve got, for now. I’m planning to advance the timeline somewhat and cover some of the events of the original trilogy.


	3. The Coruscant Guard And Guard-Adjacent Individuals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Coruscant Guard is full of a lot of interesting people, and also knows a lot of interesting people.   
> Also, therapy for everyone!

Fox

Fox is an interesting character. He’s often characterized as an antagonist to the more sympathetic characters of Rex, Ahsoka, and Fives, due to his imprisonment of Ahsoka and his shooting of Fives. He’s not a bad person, I think, just working in a bad system on bad intel. Another characterization I’ve seen for him is the overworked but hyper competent Commander of an elite security force. I disagree; he’s trained as a soldier. He has no clue what he’s doing. Neither does the rest of the Guard.

Fox reported directly to a sadist with the ability to hide his misdeeds. He was probably abused. I won’t go into detail, but it wasn’t pretty. He started to lose hope after a while, believing that the only people who were worth anything were his brothers, and that there was no escape from the Republic and what it was doing to them. It also gave him self-worth issues.

Fox is fiercely loyal to his friends and family. His greatest desire, and his motivation most of the time he’s ‘on screen’ in my fics, is to protect those he loves and make them happy. He has a broad definition of ‘protection,’ which includes both physical safety and emotional well-being.

He’s quite intelligent, and very logical. When he has time, he likes to look over case files and find connections that perhaps one of his brothers missed. He’s also creative, though has yet to find a hobby that he really likes. He’s a tad perfectionist, due to the need to look perfect in the ornate background of the Senate.

Has a sardonic sense of humor, and grouses a lot to himself. I break out the italics when writing from his POV.

He’s a very reserved man. He was even before Palaptine, and Old Ugly did not help that trait of his. However, while he has trouble expressing his feelings with words, he will let his loved ones in and share his feelings with them in other ways; through actions, mostly.

He will never be as adoption-happy as Colt, for example, but he has adopted Vos, Riyo, and Yma into his family, which also includes the rest of the Guard.

The one exception to his reservedness is his temper. He inherited it from his Alpha, and he will occasionally blow his stack. He works to never get that angry at people, and at self-control. He rarely stays angry for long, though when he is angry, it is a sight.

He’s seeing a therapist, because he needs one. There’s no shame in it; she’s helping him get better. It’s a slow journey, but it’s not like he’ll be alone taking it.

Thire

Thire’s a troublemaker. He likes to stir things up for his own amusement, as well as for the betterment of his loved ones. He also likes to watch his brothers embarrass themselves horribly. He’s the quintessential little brother, in that he loves to set his brothers up in situations for his own amusement and point and laugh. This was his entire motivation to start the plot for In the Garden of Four Rivers.

He’s also the one that starts most of the betting pools. This can get him in trouble when someone discovers he has a betting pool about them.

He’s not as serious or reserved as Fox, which can lead to clashes. The Coruscant Guard’s chain of command is odd; Thire, Thorn and Stone are all Commanders, but Fox is a Marshall-Commander equivalent, so he outranks them. However, there are three of them and only one of him, so they can annoy him into doing what they want if they agree on something that he doesn’t.

Thire is fairly hard-working, but also enjoys his downtime. He is better with interpersonal relationships than Fox is, and has cultivated a wide variety of informants on the streets of Coruscant. On Dantooine, he’s often the one to run interference with Vos when he gets too much for Fox to handle. If all else fails, he has a terrifying Mace Windu impression that can at least get Vos to stop for a moment.

Thire is every bit as intelligent as Fox; he just chooses not to let it come out as much, in order to get along better with people. He tends to use his smarts to keep the people around him happy, instead of solving cold cases.

He’s a little wise, too, he’s learned a lot of little phrases and sayings from the people around him over the years.

A fun guy to be around, and a good one to have your back. A bad enemy to have.

He has a characteristic I’ve noticed in many friendships between men that I’ve seen over the years; he likes to tease and egg his brothers on. This can get him and the recipient of his teasing in trouble.

A great character to drive the plot. If he think’s it’ll embarrass his brothers and/or be incredibly entertaining, he’ll absolutely take the next step or incite an incident.

Pretty much the only thing that will embarrass him is bringing up his childhood. He was a hellion, or as much of a hellion as Clones were allowed to be, and very emotional and attached to Tate. Tate didn’t mind as much as other Alphas would, but Thire is fully aware that he caused Tate trouble more than once and is embarrassed about it to this day.

He’s also embarrassed due to childhood fears and insecurities, which is why Fox likes to tease him about his Pom-Pom, the little critter Tate made him and his squad to try to comfort them before solo mission training.

With all the teasing he does to Fox, he probably deserves it.

Riyo Chuchi

A very warm and outgoing person, which has served her well in her political career. However, unlike many politicians in the Republic, she honestly is trying to do her best to better her people and the Republic as a whole.

Raised on a somewhat rural farmstead by her Yma and Ypa, or mother and father. Her Ypa died when she was around sixteen, leaving Yma to run the farm. This fostered a sense of independence in Riyo which has also served her well.

She was still somewhat naive when she was first elected, as well as a bit shy and overwhelmed by the Senate. However, she grew into her confidence and became a quite influential Senator for how remote and non-vital her world is. She will never be as influential as the Senator for Corellia, for example, but she is a powerful voice for rural planets in the outer rim.

Fox became her best friend, without either of them really knowing it. He started to walk her to her speeder, and they would talk about their lives and their families. She knew a bit of how Palaptine treated him, so she was always wary of the older politician. It was part of why she joined the delegation of 2000; if even half the things she suspected about him were true, she did not want him in charge of the Republic.

She’s very close, still, with her Yma, and regularly writes letters and occasionally video calls, though the time difference makes it hard to find time when both are free. Generally, Senate District, Coruscant, day is Chuchi Homestead, Pantora, night, and vice versa. Both Riyo and her mother are busy people, Riyo with Senatorial duties, and Yma with running the homestead and helping out with the local government. But they love each other none the less.

She’s very conscious about traditions and propriety from her planet, mostly because she is expected to fulfill them in her position. However, she won’t let tradition get in the way of doing what is right.

She is friends with many of the Coruscant Guard, mostly because they seemed lonely and she was right next to them while they were off guarding someplace. The patrol guardsmen like to bring her flowers, which she is touched by.

She can, of course, tell all the Clones apart due to their Blaschko’s lines, but can have trouble matching a name to a face due to speaking pretty much exclusively to people in helmets. The Guard is very forgiving, though, much to her embarrassment.

Quinlan Vos gave her a somewhat awkward talk once he became close to Fox and the rest of the Guard, asking her about her intentions towards them. Vos does not trust Senators, through she may be the exception.

One of her political enemies gave her the nickname ‘The Patron Saint of the Coruscant Guard,’ which was meant to be derogatory. She embraced it, much to Fox’s embarrassment and the Guard’s delight.

Quinlan Vos

He’s a character. That’s the best way I can describe it. He’s a very competent man, due to his training and experience. He’s also very dangerous, if mostly benevolent, and has seen the worst the galaxy has to offer. He’s a softy under all that, though.

He’s near impossible to embarrass, except in front of women who remind him of Archives Master Jocasta Nu, who he is quite sensibly terrified of.

Due to his experiences undercover, and the unpleasant things he has to see and do during them, he is only serious when he has to be. At any and all other times, he strives to drive his friends and family up the wall. Poor Obi-wan, poor Fox; they’re the most common targets for this.

He actually likes kids, but should only be allowed around them without supervision. It’s not that he’ll hurt them, or be an unfit guardian; it’s that he loves teaching them things that they probably shouldn’t know yet. He taught Anakin to pick locks when he was around eleven, for example. Fox has taken pains to make sure he isn’t around the Cadets at the Circle of Steel for too long, but this is doomed to fail eventually.

He’s very good at reading people, due to his job, but occasionally falls back into trying to manipulate them, even with the best intentions, also due to his job.

He doesn’t particularly like that tendency of his, so he has trouble cultivating close relationships. That’s part of the reason you see him bugging his crèche mates all the time; they already know not to let him manipulate them. Leave him and Obi-wan in a room alone together, and disaster ensues.

He’s similar to Obi-wan that way. Both are scared of trying to manipulate their friends and loved ones, though they use different methods, and are actively working to be more genuine with the people they love.

The Jedi Order, when Quin and Obi were young, didn’t really have a great work-life balance. Quin was always a Shadow. Obi was always a Negotiator. Due to this, they had to learn to turn their on-duty personas off by themselves. It was a trial-and-error process.

Quinlan was terrified that he was going to Fall during the war. He knew he had a proclivity for the Dark Side, and nothing brings out fear and hate like a galactic-level conflict. The intelligence assignments he was given did no help him; Palaptine targeted him individually to try and make him Fall.

He might have Fallen if he hadn’t run across the Guard. The best way for Vos to bring himself out of the spiral that would lead to him Falling is for him to have someone who needs him, even if it’s for something comparatively small. He was able to keep himself on the straight and narrow due to Aayla, his apprentice, in the beginning of the war, but when she was Knighted he started to struggle.

That’s when he met the Guard. He managed to make himself a resource for them on proper police procedure and some of the little things they don’t put in the regs manuals, and that was enough for him to hang on to the Light even on his darker days.

Yaro “Yma” Chuchi

So. I have a bad habit of basing traits of characters off some of my family members. For example, Many of the Clones have my dad’s dry humor and sarcasm, Obiwan has his facetiousness, and Cody has my mom’s intuition. Quinlan Vos has some of my grandad’s ability to annoy people, and Fox has some of my brother’s perfectionist tendencies.

Yma is a conglomeration of my mother and many of my aunts, both adopted and biological. She has one aunt’s larger-than-life and tactile personality, my mom’s cooking skills, another aunt’s penchant for taking in the neighbor children and giving them food, etc. In short, she is an unholy combination of rural Midwestern housewife and rural Southwestern ranch woman.

I consider Yma a sign that I am becoming a woman by the traditions of my family; I’ve developed the ‘need to feed’ often seen in my female relatives. I like to make food and give food to people. Apparently, that extends to wanting to feed fictional characters.

Since I am not fictional myself, I have to feed them by proxy.

She’s a widow, and has been for a while. She had one of those fairytale marriages with her husband, where he courted her like an old-fashioned gentleman and they loved each other deeply. I tried to put little hints at this into her characterization, notably that her husband hand-made their courting necklace, according to the tradition of their grandparents’ day. She approves of Fox doing the same.

I based the anecdotes of Riyo’s childhood off some of the stories one of my adopted aunts told me of her own, notably the having alcohol after harvest one.

Yma misses her husband dearly, of course, but she isn’t quite as lonely as Riyo fears she is. Running a homestead takes a spectacular amount of work, especially for one person. She has no time to pine away. Yma is also involved with local government; Riyo had to get it from somewhere.

This doesn’t stop her from adopting every single Clone Riyo brings home. Yma believes in a unique version of the golden rule; treat others like you would like your own children to be treated. The Clones are still amazed by this.

In short, Yma is every beneficial female figure in my life wrapped up in a welcoming package. I just want the Clones to have nice things, okay?

Alpha-34

All the Alphas dealt with Kamino differently. Alpha 17 tried to become the perfect soldier that the Kaminoans were trying to create, locking away his emotions even with his family after a while. Alpha-34 simply got angry, and kept being angry, at the Kaminoans, at the trainers, at the Republic, and at himself. Please don’t get me wrong, most of that anger is justified. However, his anger with himself prevented him from reaching out and asking for help.

His relationship with his CCs is a bit fraught. He loves them, dearly, but as part of his anger at himself he refuses to believe he has the right. He has a hard time separating what he did of his own will and what the Kaminoans made him do, so he’s terrified he will hurt his CCs and also any children around him.

Luckily, Fox is not a man to take no for an answer. He also understands what it’s like to have your CO mess with your head and hurt the people under your protection, and he’s had therapy about it.

I feel like therapy is in high demand in the Star Wars universe.

Fox also has a larger support network of family than Alpha does, notably Vos, Riyo, Thorn, Stone, And Thire. He’s working on bringing Alpha into that network, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Like Fox, ‘34 struggles with some self-esteem issues. Fox has recommended his therapist, and ‘34 is beginning to have sessions with her periodically.

‘34 has acquired a new hobby/therapy mechanism. He likes to bake cookies and other sweets. Baking is something that he enjoys; he likes measuring the quantities of the ingredients out exactly, and mixing them for the exact time required, and baking them at the exact temperature for the exact duration.

Fox may have gotten a few of his perfectionist qualities from his Alpha.

‘34 also likes to give cookies to people, his CCs and strangers alike. He will occasionally bring them to the Cadets and Littles, though he always insists on having an escort when he’s around the kids. He’s becoming more and more comfortable, though. One day, he may not feel the need to be supervised around children. Until then, he pays his escort in cookies and he has no shortage of volunteers.

Alpha-28 ‘Tate’

Tate is perhaps the most laid back of the Alphas, es evidenced by the fact that he allowed his CCs to name him while still on Kamino. Unlike 17, who tried to hold up the facade of ‘emotionless Alpha’ at all times, or 34, who mostly showed only his anger, Tate is less afraid to acknowledge that he loves his CCs, especially on Dantooine. However, he has pretty deeply ingrained self-esteem issues, and has a hard time believing his squad loves him after all he did to them.

Guess what: therapy for him too.

He enjoys spending time with Thire and his other CCs, but needs to be reassured that he is welcome occasionally. Naturally, Thire and his brothers are happy to do so.

He’s mischievous and creative, not a good combination. In Vos’s danger-fraught trip from Dantooine to Pantora, he had great fun setting up various nonlethal, injury-inducing, and just plain annoying traps with only the items in the ship.

He’s particularly proud of one that involved the sheets of all the beds on the ship and an entire liter of industrial glue.

Unfortunately for him, and probably fortunately for Vos, Vos is an expert at evading traps from his service as a Shadow. Tate was very disappointed when he didn’t even get Vos once.

He likes yarn crafts, mostly from some of his few good memories of Kamino. He used to fray the edges of the regulation blankets to make them less stiff, and he used the extra to make the little Pom-Pom critters for his CCs. He never expected them to mean so much to the kids, but every one of his CCs still has their little fluff ball somewhere. He’s incredibly touched.

Yma is teaching him crochet, which he’s enthralled by. The reason I chose crochet for him and not knitting is sentimental; my grandma taught me how to crochet when I was little, and I still keep in practice. Also, I don’t know how to knit, and didn’t really want to have to bother with learning the technical terms for it. So.

He’s currently living with Thire, in the office/bedroom in their quarters; life has been interesting for the both of them. Between shampoo in the caf machine, and short-sheeting the bunks, Tate and Thire keep each other on their toes.

Fox is contemplating having them both hospitalized in the psych ward, if only to get some peace and quiet.

He and 34 are close, mostly due to the fact that their kids are in the same unit. And their animosity toward Vos. It’s not malicious, mind, they’re merely annoyed him; it’s really a pity they live on the same ship as the man.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heavier topics this time! I decided to do more of a meta essay, detailing some of the background underpinnings of the Republic as I write it. 
> 
> Please note: I strive not to use offensive language. However, I’m not up do date on what’s politically correct nowadays. If I have anything offensive written, please gently inform me and I will fix it as soon as I can.

I’ve been having a hard time with getting character notes down, so I decided to do some more General worldbuilding stuff. In this case, racism and sexism in the Star Wars universe.

I don’t really think much racism exists in the Star Wars universe, I’ve never seen it in any of the storylines I’ve read. Or, perhaps, it is there in a form we don’t recognize.

The thing is, race is a completely arbitrary social construct. In modern America, and many other parts of the western world, we mostly define it by skin color and continent of origin. Racism is generally seen as discrimination based on skin color, most often on darker skin colors.

However, in Medieval Europe, racism was mostly white-against-white. Celts vs. Iberians. Germanics vs. Slavs. People who would refer to themselves as the same race today would refer to themselves as different races then, and discriminate accordingly.

I don’t think there is skin color prejudice in Star Wars. They probably wouldn’t have the same group names as we do, so I will use words like ‘equatorial complexion’ to refer to a person of African descent. I’m trying to figure out a way to describe people of Asian descent without playing into racist stereotypes. Stay tuned.

Canonically, there is prejudice against people from the Outer Rim. Perhaps that could be considered a form of racism. However, there isn’t much evidence for this.

The only case I know of where an individual of darker skin tone is treated unjustly by a person of white skin tone is when Prime Minister Almec says that Jango Fett is not Mandalorian. Many fans took this to mean that Almec, and the primarily white New Mandalorians, based Fett’s not-Mandalorian status on his skin color. I think there’s an easier explanation. Fett is a bounty hunter and assassin, a very violent man, everything the New Mandalorians want to forget. Saying he’s not one of their people is a good way to get some distance.

The Clones are also discriminated against, of course, but that’s on the basis of their being clones, not their being darker skinned.

In Star Wars, when writers want to make about prejudice and oppression, they mostly use speciesism as a stand in for racism. This makes sense, for two reasons.

I can’t state reason 1 better than Mr. Terry Pratchett:

“Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because—what with trolls and dwarfs and so on—speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.” ― Terry Pratchett, [Witches Abroad](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/929672)

Reason 2 is more meta. Speciesism isn’t as recently traumatic to many people. For example, in one comic storyline, the Twi’lek Knight Aayla Secura rescues her (also Twi’lek) cousin from slavery. The comic actually depicts the child in chains, if I remember correctly. Think about how much differently that comic would read if Aayla and her cousin were humans of African descent.

The writers use speciesism as a stand in for racism often, mostly to get their point across without offending or traumatizing people. I can only say this is smart.

It also brings me to my next subject: sexism.

Sexism is a more shaky ground in Star Wars. I believe that it was confirmed that he Empire, at least, was sexist in Legends Canon, but new canon has made an effort to be more gender-inclusive across the board. I’m forced to just look at the source material and draw my own conclusions.

Firstly, while many of the Rebels in the Original Trilogy were female, there were no female officers in the Empire. However, Princess Leia And Mon Mothma were known powerful political figures, and didn’t seem to be discriminated against for their gender while in performance of these roles.

In the Prequels, most of the female figures we see fall into two brackets: politician and political entourage, or Jedi. A great deal of these women have no little political or military power, and again, they are mostly not discriminated against (Aayla Secura faced discrimination, but it seemed to be mostly due to her status as a Twi’lek woman rather than simply a woman).

I’ve just given up on the Sequels. Their worldbuilding is not the best. All I’ll say is that there were women in a variety of positions, both political and military.

The Mandalorian does portray a female Officer fairly high up in the Imperial Remnant, Cara Dune, an Alderranian woman who fought for the Rebellion, and Fennec Shand, an extremely competent assassin. Cara, the woman who has the most screen time, is given a hard time by some due to her status as an Alderranian, but as far as I can recall is not discriminated against for being a woman.

There doesn’t seem to be sexism in the Star Wars universe, as we are familiar with it. However, our idea of sexism is heavily focused on arbitrarily assigned gender roles. What if the Star Wars universe had different gender roles?

In the Old Republic, it appears that women in political power had been normalized. However, the only women we see acting in a military capacity are Jedi. What if instead of the stereotypical man-is-provider/woman-is-homemaker gender roles from Western culture, we have a different one?

The roles I would propose are man-is-warrior/woman-is-peacemaker. This would explain the high amount of women in politics, while them being nonexistent in the non-Jedi military. The Jedi are peacekeepers, which is well in line with this gender role, explaining why we do not see discrimination against female Jedi. Another major group of women shown in the film, the Nabooan Handmaidens, take great pains to conceal their martial prowess until the actual invasion of Naboo- they are playing into the gender expectation that they are peaceful political aides.

Over the course of Canon, these gender roles fall apart due to social stresses. Princess Leia is a peacekeeper, But is also a warrior out of necessity, and many women follow her example. By the time of the Mandalorian, even the Empire will accept female officers due to manpower shortages. When the sequels roll around, many women no longer conform to this gender role and it is considered outdated.

However, of course, there are other takes on canon. Mine is not the only one.

I’d love to hear your take on this, guys. Comments are welcome!


	5. Akela

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A (probably kind of funny-looking) picture of Akela.

If the image isn’t loading (it wouldn’t for me) go to:

<https://youngestthunderbird.tumblr.com/post/638891273735045120/picture-of-my-clone-oc-akela-im-trying-to>


	6. Some Finer Points of Jedi Doctrine

Attachment

I’m one of the ones who chooses to believe that Jedi are allowed to be affectionate to each other, at least theoretically. Of course, the acceptable level of affection changes over time.

The first thing you have to remember is that the Jedi order is made of imperfect people, because all people are imperfect. Imperfect people trying their best to do good, but imperfect all the same, and imperfect people make mistakes. One of the common mistakes large groups of people make is overreaction.

I discussed in ‘Land Under the Mountain’ the fallout from the rash of Fallings when Obi-wan was about 13, and how the views toward affection were changed over time after that. However, I don’t think I ever touched on what ‘attachment’ meant to the Jedi. You don’t have to be affectionate to love somebody, and you don’t have to love somebody to be affectionate. I choose to believe that the same exists with attachment.

So: I don’t believe the Jedi were forbidden to have platonic relationships, first and foremost. In the comics especially, many mainstream Jedi express the idea that the Master-Padawan bond is similar to a parent-child one. Now, we can dismiss this as an anomaly when Anakin says this in AoTC due to his stated philosophical departures from the Jedi, but when Jedi such as Aayla Secura say it, we are shown that this is much more of a mainstream Jedi thought.

However, romantic relationships may get dicey. I think that they were frowned upon, mostly because romance messes with your brain chemistry. Physical intimacy even more so. Some studies I’ve read compare it to the effects of drugs. So, romantic relationships are discouraged among the Coruscant Jedi, probably in an effort to have sober minded, even keeled knights.

Marriage is outright forbidden, because not only do you have a romantic and physical relationship (presumably, at least), but you have a legal connection and an obligation to take care of your spouse, and especially to care for any offspring that may result. Like, the entire attachment dogma is about not putting a single person over the well-being of many, but that’s kind of what romance and having kids are all about- you put the well-being of your spouse and kids before everyone else’s, including your own, sometimes.

Not only does this ruin a Knight’s appearance of impartiality for negotiations, but if a Knight dies (and Knighthood is established to be a high-risk job), the spouse and children might not have a place to go.

Knights have few possessions, and they might not have any money at all (I’m not sure if the Jedi are given a stipend, or paid in goods, board, and services through the Temple). There’s no way they can provide for a family after they pass, as I’m certain that life insurers won’t insure Jedi due to their high risk working environment.

Even if you allow the family to stay in the Knight’s quarters in the Temple, and provide for their needs as fellow Jedi, would they be happy in the ascetic and esoteric Temple environment?

Furthermore, I’ve established that the Jedi get their funding from the Republic, and that the Senate exerts a measure of control over them because of that. Would the Senate enjoy paying for the upkeep of widows, widowers, and orphans of Jedi Knights?

I’m basing this idea on the historical reasons Catholic Priests can’t get married. I figure there’s at least some overlap.

This makes Anakin and Padme’s marriage and the reasons for secrecy behind it more clear: Anakin has absolutely tanked his legal neutrality when Naboo, the Senate, or any other group Padme is involved with is part of a negotiation he’s arbitrating.

Now, the ‘attachment’ reformation in Exodus flight is partial recognition of the changing culture of the Order, and partial decision to change the rules regarding marriage. Anakin has proved that he can perform his duties with a reasonable amount of neutrality, and that he did not put his wife over the lives of the Jedi. His example, as well as the example of other Jedi Masters who had been granted exceptions to the marriage rules like Mundi, convinced the council to change their ruling. The current consensus on Dantooine is that romance is something that can be pursued, but your partner should understand that being a Jedi means that the partner does not always come first, and that Jedi should recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest due to romantic partnership.

Falling

When we are first introduced to the concept of Falling in the Original Trilogy, it’s by Obi-wan telling Luke this:

‘You father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed.’

This would imply that the Jedi, at least, equate falling with death, or at least the death of everything good about a person. It’s a metamorphosis into someone else, someone other, someone awful.

However, we must remember the source: Obi-wan is not a reliable narrator when it comes to Anakin or Darth Vader. He has a bad habit of skewing the truth slightly when speaking to Luke, either to placate Luke or because that’s what he believes himself so he can sleep at night.

Luke believes there is still good in Vader, Obi-wan, probably remembering the battle at Mustafar, tries to dissuade him. However, Luke is proven right, and Obi-wan wrong, in the end.

The other major source in the Original Trilogy is Yoda.

‘Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.’

He’s the wise, kooky teacher for Luke, giving some more fundamental lectures on the Dark Side as opposed to Obi-wan’s personal experience. However, he’s not a reliable narrator either. At least, I don’t think so.

Yoda was Dooku’s Jedi Master, his family, his father, as the Jedi think of it. Dooku Fell, and committed atrocities against the Jedi and the Republic. He perpetrated slavery, and other war crimes, within the CIS. He fought the Jedi, his former family, killing some of them. He even tried to kill his grandpadawans multiple times, the first time being when Anakin was still a child by the Order’s standards (Geonosis, when Anakin was a Padawan).

And he was Yoda’s Padawan. Yoda, naturally, would believe the best of someone he trained, someone with the iron will Dooku is demonstrated to have. If anyone could return to the light on sheer willpower and intelligence, it would be Dooku. But Dooku did not choose to return, he simply committed more and more atrocities and killed more and more Jedi.

So Yoda does believe that the dark side will always be your leanings once it gets a hold of you- that’s what happened to Dooku.

However, neither Yoda nor Obi-wan counted on Vader wanting to protect his son. He chose to return to the light in order to protect Luke, sacrificing himself in the process. Dooku didn’t appear to ever have someone he loved selflessly enough to do that for.

Which brings me toward the idea of attachment and falling. The Fall we see on-screen, Anakin’s, seems mostly brought about by his unwillingness to let Padme die- an admirable trait until he decides to kill people for it. You should of course do everything you can to keep your wife and children safe, but killing innocents unprovoked? That’s going too far.

Furthermore, it’s not a reasonable action. Anakin is convinced to turn on an implication that Palpatine might be able to save Padmé. He’s thinking with his emotions, with his fear, and possibly running under too little sleep. If he had been thinking logically, he probably would have questioned Palatine’s actions, motives, and plans a little more, and it might all have come crashing down. 

Even if Anakin was thinking reasonably, and did choose with a somewhat clear head to kill everyone in the Temple in exchange for a possibility of his wife’s survival, he did not make the moral choice.

Which, come to think of it, is probably another reason why romance is discouraged by the Order. We must never allow ourselves to forsake our morals for our loved ones, and people who can lift buildings with their mind, carry a laser sword around, and broker every kind of intergalactic dispute need to be even more morally unimpeachable. Otherwise you get Pong Krell.

We don’t see the moment Anakin’s eyes turn yellow in RotS, we simply see that they are fully yellow after he kills the Separatist leaders. We can assume this means he’s immersed fully in the Dark Side, after committing genocide at the Jedi Temple and more murder elsewhere.

Dark side use seems to affect the mood or perhaps even the mind of the user, with different people showing different baselines. Vader and Ventress seem to be violent and short tempered, while Dooku and Sidious are cold and calculating. Vader also seems to be more subdued than Anakin in the Original Trilogy, though whether this is a side effect of maturing for twenty years and having your only close personal relationship be Darth Sidious or an effect of the Dark Side is hard to say. A common trait in Dark Side users is putting self over everything else; as opposed to the Jedi, who put others over everything else.

I theorized that the difference between Sith and Nightsisters has to deal with which specific emotions they cultivate and draw power from, with the Sith focusing on anger and hatred and the Nightsisters focusing on fear. Naturally, these emotions do have some overlap, but it could explain the differences between known Sith and known Nightsisters behaviorally. The Sith are more focused on single enemies or groups of enemies due to their anger; the cultivate anger towards individual people or groups and use that. Nightsisters tend to lash out more generally; they’re afraid, and want everyone to be afraid of them.

It might also explain Vader’s behavior in the OT and how it’s more similar to Ventress’;Ventress was afraid of the Galaxy mostly due to what had happened to her, so she made it her enemy. Vader hated the Galaxy mostly due to what had happened to him, so he made it his enemy.

We see Vader turn back when he makes a selfless choice to save Luke at the cost of himself. He’s acting out of love, not hatred or fear, and makes the choice to return to the light.

Now, I believe that you can use love as a conduit for the dark side, due to it being a strong emotion just like any other. However, I also believe that Anakin chose to return to the light instead of using love to feed the Dark so that he would have a clearer head for the fight. He probably knows that he can’t defeat Sidious with the Dark Side; he’s been the man’s apprentice for 20 years, and Sith apprentices are expected to be able to kill their master to end their apprenticeship. The light side gives him the advantage of surprise as well as a clearer head.

So it is possible to turn back to the light if you have enough incentive, something that’s backed up with minor comics and novel canon about Quinlan Vos and Depa Billaba.

In summary, because this one got away from me, I think the Dark Side is what happens when Force Users draw on the Force using their emotions, and that it works in a mind-altering capacity to encourage it’s users to keep using it, like many chemical substances. However, though it is difficult, people can choose to stop using it, as we’ve seen in RotJ.


End file.
